Tag: EQ2

Well. I guess instead of moaning about it on Twitter as I’ve been doing for the last half-hour, I might as well moan about my lack of motivation here — especially since my lack of motivation includes the lack of motivation to write a blog post, so complaining about my lack of motivation with my waffly skills should use up at least 200 words, by which time I’ll be 40% there. (There being the Blaugust 10-sentence, 2-paragraph, to-my-mind 500-words-ish rule of content requirement.)

Twitter has been no help at all — well, except for TAGN, who alone responded to my plea for help — and maybe MrC, who totally enabled my displacement activity.

Apparently some people actually have lives and jobs and things to do on a cool and breezy Friday morning other than post a week’s worth of Tweets in an hour. Or provide a desperate blogger with post ideas. Or, better yet, write them for her.

OMG there it is! I should have found myself a guest blogger! That would have been such a cool thing to do for Blaugust, too! Curses.

In the spirit of carpe diem, does anyone want to do a guest post on an incredibly high-profile, Jon Stewart reads this, up-to-the-second, content-stuffed bloggy mountain of infinite delights? If so, apply to the Huffington Post. If you’d rather an obscure cavern of confusion, apply here.

You’ll get acclaim, pride, self-confidence and the absolute guarantee of no free T-Shirt ever. And you’ll be the first guest poster here. (And quite possibly the last.) (Despite the tone, this is a serious offer.)

[Okay, 238 words, only 262 to go. I can do this!!]

TAGN inspires, I perspire

Under the Drunder You Go

Drunder Prison-World may be the most awesome thing ever… It’s basically EQ2’s answer to Lord of the Flies or Escape from New York* with 8,000 Snake Plissken wannabes. You can read the whole post for yourselves, but the basic idea is that the biggest asshats in EQ2 will find their entire account banished to an exile server from which they may never escape, as determined by Customer Service GMs. People can also opt for a one-time, no-refund, one-way transfer to Drunder if they think they’re hard enough. People also have to have a paid subscription account to EQ2 for this, which is just kind of weird. Because the rest of the scheme is totally not weird.

Aside from the obvious issue of let’s-just-make-a-new-account-they’ll-never-know-it’s-me-bwahaha, which I assume they’ve thought of (no of course I haven’t read the entire thread, what am I, made of time?), and the inevitable whining that will ensue when people transfer over for a lark and are forcibly made to understand the meaning of the term “one-way only”, does this have a chance of working at all? My guess would be asshat players will either find a new account to be an asshat on, or will find a new game to be an asshat on; of course if they pick the latter it’s no longer the EQ2 staff’s bailiwick so problem solved.

At any rate it’s a new idea in an industry that always needs new ideas, and it could lead to some interesting server-ruleset variations if this experiment works. And if it removes the worst offenders that’s a good thing. Not that I have any idea who the worst offenders are or what they have to do to earn that dubious distinction. Even in EQ2, which is one game where I follow global channels, I don’t follow the global-global channel because it’s invariably full of over-sharers, eejits, or crashing bores who think they aren’t.

My favourite MMO mount

Hrm. All of them. Okay, probably this one — as the mount you can’t actually ride except for 10 seconds in a specific zone with a one-hour cooldown. (Can you say L-A-M-E?)

I’m terribly boring when it comes to mounts. I like to get the weird and wonderful ones but when it comes to actually getting around I’m 100% utilitarian. They need to move without too much jerk, wobble or bounce (yes, the mounts), they need to not fill my entire screen (Pandaclysm dragon-mounts FTW), and they need to match my outfits — by which I usually mean my pets. So here’s my most common mount in WoW, which probably counts as my favourite.

A crafting profession memory!

That’s easy. All of them. I’m a crafter in games, it’s what I am as much as what I do, and any adventuring that happens (including levelling, in most games) is an incidental by-product. Most of my EQ2 characters are max-level crafters — or were an expansion or 2 ago — but haven’t made it out of the teens or twenties for adventuring. I had no less than three accounts for SWG back in the one-account/one-character days so that I could experience all the crafting professions. I pick games based on their crafting options — and yes, I’ve been disappointed many, many times. Which doesn’t mean I don’t play games where the crafting sucks (WoW is an obvious example), but it does feel sort of like playing with half a game. And so we segue neatly into…

Why is there so much Cheese in WoW?

Because cheese is awesome. Because cheese is better than cake and better than pie, as I have stated before (see the no free T-shirt link above if you really want linkage). Because a world without cheese might as well be a world without air. My glorious leader said so:

How do you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?

Yes, I’m French. What of it? You wanna take this to Drunder? EDIT — WordPress is either Francophile or Anti-French. It ate my DeGaulle caption. But since it was about cheese, maybe WordPress just really likes cheese. Thanks for spotting that TAGN!

Sometimes, like today, I’m almost nostalgic for the days when I only had one or two games to choose from. I’ve got no work on today and likely none over the weekend either (yay!), and I’m faced with so many games I don’t know which to choose.

There’s World of Warcrack, and the expansion remains highly entertaining. I’ve got 4 level 100 chars with garrisons to manage and stuff to accumulate, which is always fun, even though it sucks up time like a black hole. Eventually I’m sure the luster will pale but nothing beats WoW for simple, mindless levelling joy. I don’t dungeon, so my go-to in WoW tends to be to find (or make) an alt and just quest for a few hours. It’s relaxing — and that’s why I play WoW. It’s also where I hang out on Vent with old WoW and Asheron’s Call friends and get my dose of socialising for the monthweek day.

Then there’s Elite: Dangerous, which is exactly the opposite. I did get it installed and I did get in to play, once, but that was over a week ago and, I’ll admit, I’m super intimidated by the game. No game has ever made me feel quite as noobish and useless as this one does. I don’t even know how to fly the ship. I didn’t expect flying the beginner ship would be quite that difficult (and I’m not the only one*). I actually expected that I’d be able to pick it up in a half hour or so and then start doing the trading and possibly mining thing, which was why I bought the game. Instead I feel like a noob, in a bad way, and I’m not sure I want to try again. But I will, if only because $60 for a half hour of entertainment is not really good value… and because I fully expect that eventually — provided I play enough to feel comfortable with the controls — I will love the game and play it to death, because it’s exactly the sort of thing I enjoy.

I also picked up Civilization: Beyond Earth during one of the (many, thank god, because I suck at catching them) Steam sales for that game. Don’t believe the people who tell you it’s only superficially like Civ — it’s 110% Civ, just Civ in space with aliens instead of barbarians and a revamped tech tree (it’s a wheel now). However, that’s not a bad thing in my book and the new tweaks in the game are a lot of fun. I tend to play this on the non-nightmare modes and I prefer non-military victories, so it’s another relatively mindless exploration and building game.**

Sims 4 is of course still kicking around, though I don’t think I’ve fired it up in most of a month. I think I’m holding a grudge with the bugs that hit my Mirage legacy, not to mention the fact that none of my Sims are able to have children without having twins or triplets. It’s amusing to write about, but it gets real old real fast when you’re trying to play. Less is more in this case. I guess I could go with adoption… I dunno. I’m still a little narked about the whole thing, so I’ll pretend the Sims 4 aren’t in my game case for a few months and then go back to it. As far as single-player games go, the Sims is one of the most enduring for me so it’s a fair bet I won’t ignore it forever.

I also picked up Theme: Hospital by accident on Origin the other day, mostly for nostalgia’s sake and because it was a freebie. Memory served up this image of people chain-vomiting in the halls and that sounded like fun in the middle of flu season, but I haven’t had time to fire it up yet. Still, it should be good for a few hours of remember-when fun.

The Secret World keeps looking at me sadly because I update it and then don’t log in. Again, I think right now I want mindless from my games, and TSW requires a little more attention than I’m willing to give. Which is a shame, because as far as atmosphere goes it’s probably my favourite MMO ever (and the one in which I take the most screenshots).

And then, in no particular order because the post is getting long, the other icons on my desktop include Diablo III (never made it past level 15 or so), Landmark (haven’t logged on in months because it gave my gfx card fits), EQ2 (still haven’t bought the Altar of Malice expansion, though I’m sure I will sooner or later), and Shroud of the Avatar (ditto the not logging on in months, though really I put money into it to support the development, not to have it wtfbbqNAO). Oh, and all 3 Dragon Age games, of course. I barely played DA2 and only spent a couple of hours in DA3 (not even sure I made it out of the first section), and I’m sure DA3 is worth some more intensive play. I can’t be arsed to link all those, so let your fingers do the Googling.

It’s actually a great thing to have a butt-ton of games to play and not know which to pick. I tend to default to WoW at the moment because I can pick it up and put it down easily and it doesn’t have the “just … 5 … more … minutes!” hold on me some of the other games have, which is helpful these days because on the list of useful and/or productive things to be doing with my time, games are not anywhere near the top, nor should they be.

But still, sometimes I kind of wish I only had one or two games to pick from. It would mean less time wasted gazing at my desktop and wondering which flavour I’m in the mood for today. #firstworldwoes and all.

* Ermahgerd, a pingback circle jerk! That’s just so wrong.

** You may be sensing a theme here. Yes, I prefer my games to not engage my adrenal glands too much. For one thing, adrenaline and I don’t get along all that well (I am the exact opposite of a thrill-seeker), and for another I play games to unwind, which for me means generally laid-back and not requiring an excessive amount of thought. Oh god, I’ve just branded myself a disgusting casual carebear player. However will I cope with the stigma?

There’s a lot going on in my game and MMO world right now, and in the next couple of weeks.

There’s The Secret World’s Halloween event, which I’ve mentioned with a few screenshots; I did a few related bits and pieces but they’re intended for more powerful characters (or characters with help), and I’ll get to them next time. I don’t want to get into the ‘must do everything right this second’ craze, because for me that inevitably leads to burnout. The events will be available next year.

There’s my Sims 4 legacy challenge family, which I’m playing a little less these days and which therefore has only just reached the point of conceiving generation 4. I suspect the double whammy of twins in gen 2 and triplets in gen 3 burned me out on that a bit too – it was just a LOT of Sims to keep track of, especially for a control-freak like me.

Then there’s the EverQuest 2 expansion, Altar of Malice, that launches tomorrow for super-special (i.e. subscription) people like me. I haven’t logged in to EQ2 in a couple of weeks, what with TSW and WoW and everything else. I should log in and claim my monthly Station Cash, however. And I will log in for the expansion, if not necessarily tomorrow, because the Isle of Refuge is back and anyone who played EQ2 in the early days knows what that means. I think I’m a few months off getting it as housing from the veteran reward, though buying expansions usually adds some time to one’s account, but it’s going to be awesome! (Meaning I’ll get it, plonk my research assistants down and never do any decorating, even though I’ll plan to decorate every time I log on. I predict this with absolute certainty.)

Speaking of World of Warcrack, Warlords of Draenor launches on Thursday (the 13th) — and while I’m not much of one for WoW’s endgame content, their levelling content is usually a lot of fun. It’ll give me a chance to hook up with guildies I’ve hung out with for 10 years now (and more if you count the original Asheron’s Call lot who went to WoW), and I’m also looking forward to the new garrisons. If it walks like a house and talks like a house, it’s a really laboured metaphor – but still, it’s housing.

And THEN there’s Dragon Age: Inquisition, which launches on the 18th. We’d originally splurged for 2 collector’s editions of Dragon Age: Origins, 5 years ago (man, that long already?!) but those got lost in one of the 3 moves we’ve done since then, so when the game was offered for free on Origin I went ahead and downloaded it. I’ve been playing it here and there for the last few days, just to see if I want to get DA:I when it comes out, and I think I do. I had forgotten how good some of the cut-scenes are, and how funny a lot of the dialog between Alistair and Morrigan is; Steve Valentine was truly inspired casting. I recreated Antimony, the mage I played through the Origin story back when the game launched, and although it’s not my favourite class to be playing (rogues and rangers 4 eva!), I’m enjoying the replay. Plus I think her Sinnead look is boss.

It’s a good thing work is relatively light at the moment, so that I may fully appreciate the quandary of having too many fun and interesting games to play. Now if only I could stay awake enough to play in the evenings, I could get some truly epic sessions in (long story, boring, suffice to say I tend to wilt pretty much right after dinner and am good only for Netflix binge-watching). Sadly it is not to be, and I’ll have to content myself with what I can cram in during the day. Yes, it truly sucks to have so many choices and so many good games to look forward to. Life is tough.

In a few hours, anyway – or, depending where you may be, happy 2011 already.

Let us hope the crop of games is good! Aside from that I wouldn’t mind a pony, great health, pots of cash and undying love. You know, the easy stuff, and not necessarily in that order (though the pony ALWAYS comes first).

Was pondering doing a recap of 2010 but really, my gaming year was pretty boring. I don’t own a console right now (can’t decide between Xbox and PS3), so I didn’t play any of those. I didn’t play any of the Dragon Age expansion thingies either. I did briefly play Assassin’s Creed in preparation for buying and playing AC2, but not for long and I never did buy the new game.

MMO-wise, I started the year with EQ2 in the firm belief (isn’t it always?) that I wouldn’t be playing anything else for positively aeons. Predictably, I got sucked into Fallen Earth in May-ish, partly because of a free offer that was too good to pass up and partly to show solidarity for what appeared to be a struggling studio with not a bad little MMO.

That lasted all of two months, I think. I then hopped into the LOTRO F2P beta and thence into LOTRO paid-up non-beta, which I’m technically still subscribed to (I think). We played that for a few months and then, a few weeks ago, somehow got sucked back in to WoW, where I’ve been having far more fun than I ever expected. The excellent company of friends I’ve recovered there doesn’t hurt one bit, either — it’s been half a decade and then some since I played with some of those people, and it’s been great to catch up over a drink or seven.

Side note: good tequila apparently does not give you hangovers.

Side note 2: good tequila seems to evaporate out of the bottle really fast. I’ll have to make sure the cap’s on tight. *cough*

News? What news? I’ve been too busy working then playing then working then playing. I don’t need no stinkin’ news!

For the click challenged, EQ2 is going Free to Play. Note that this is NOT the current live-server incarnation — it’s almost an entirely separate game. See:

2. What will happen to the EverQuest II live subscription service?

Nothing! The game will persist with no expected changes for its subscribers. SOE will continue to support its loyal EQII customers on the live subscription service with new and exciting game updates as well as expansions. EQII Extended will be managed as a separate game and should not impact the live subscription game.

Just as well because until I saw that — and while I still thought this was going to affect the EQ2 game I play — I was more or less frothing at the mouth. Why? Because the “gold” sub at $14.99 offers less than the current live-EQ2 sub of the same price. It’s only a small difference in level cap — which might not bother someone like me, but probably would bother people who actually care about levels.

I’m not entirely sure I get the idea of this other than jumping on the F2P-2010 bandwagon. But hey, if it works, then good for them. The more games we have and the more these games find different ways in which to survive and thrive, the better it’ll be for the gaming community as a whole. There’s a whole possible continuum between Farmville and WoW; let’s find ways to exploit it and get some good games.

Last week I reported (mostly via Ark’s Ark) that the Powers That Be had decided that mounts wouldn’t — be that is, at least in combat. This caused quite a furore on the forums and in the blogosphere (torches! pitchforks!) and the decision was reversedamendedimproved to give us all more options, which is always a good thing in MMOs. Can’t have too many options. Except maybe when it comes to boob sliders — I really only accept those when they’re paired with “package sliders” and I have yet to see one of those in any game (Age of Conan maybe?). And what about {expletive deleted} jiggle physics? Why does that only apply to breasts? I demand equality of jiggle!

Uhh, where was I? Oh yes, mounts.

So anyway, one of the recent patchlets on the Test server added some options to the animations section of the, er, options screen. Here it is:

It’s easy. See your mount Always/Never/Not in Combat. Piece of cake. Lovely job on the part of the EQ2 team and it should make everyone happy except Whiny Rage-Bastard who’s never happy about anything anyway and would find a way to complain even on Christmas morning.

The default setting is to hide mounts during combat, and for my money that is extreeeeeeemely irritating. Seriously. Draw weapon, *poof*, fight-fight-fight, run towards next opponent and the mount re-*poof*s under you only to *poof* again the second you draw your sword. The added 5-second post-combat delay actually only makes things even more irksome, at least to me. However, I’m sure that some people will be delighted with this option and therefore it’s a good thing.

Different horses for different courses, right?

(See whut I did thar?)

In other news, happy Cinco de Mayo for those of you living — as I am — in an area where it’s celebrated. Being French, I am extremely conflicted about this one. Part of me is tempted to drive down into the middle of Albuquerque and loudly yell “Allons enfants de la Patrie! A la Bastille!” but I doubt it would go over well. Assuming anyone understood it.

The other part of me just thinks I should get myself a beer and a party sombrero and keep my evil French revolutionary leanings to myself.

I must say this in very bold letters to make sure people actually read it:

The travel revamp is NOT on the Live servers yet. It’s on the TEST server, being TESTED. The system may change. It may make it to live as is. It may never make it to live at all. Or it may be spindled, folded or mutilated before it makes it to live. You Have Been Warned. Do not whine about how it impacts your gaming on live, because it doesn’t. Yet.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the skinny according to the original patch notes (see below for TL;DR or read the blue bits):

Traveling to different locations uses a new interface.

Now when selecting a travel location via teleportation, bell, or sokokar/horse/griffon etc. you will do so through a travel map.

Simply double click your choice, or select it and then press OK to be whisked away.

Mousing over a location when using world teleportation displays a level range and some background information on the area.

Bell/carpet zone travel has been consolidated. Bells on the different continents have all been linked together. This means the bells that were in Nektulos are no longer limited to 6 locations. These bells have been reduced to one bell that is linked to other bells across Norrath. Bells used to travel within Qeynos and Freeport have not been changed except that they now use the travel map allowing for more direct connections to where you wish to go.

Druid portals no longer require the player to have harvested a Blessed Shrubbery. Blessed Shrubberies have been imbued by Tunare with the power to transport players to any of the other druid rings! {However when you do harvest a shrubbery, you now have to yell Ni! really loudly, or it won’t work.}

Translocate no longer requires a planar symbol.

Translocate portals were transporting players to incorrect spots in the Bonemire and The Barren Sky. This has been corrected.

Planar symbols have been removed from vendor lists.

Sokokar posts no longer require the Sokokar item. They now check that you have completed either the tradeskill or adventuring version of the quest.

The following zones no longer require you to do a quest or go to a location before accessing the inner zone travel option. The quests that were there previously have been reworked so that players can still do them optionally. [Nektulos, Thundering Steppes, Sinking Sands, Pillars of Flame]

The following zones now have inner zone travel options or have had new locations added to them: Steamfont, Zek, Feerott, Enchanted Lands, Everfrost, Greater Faydark, Nektulos

All spires that can be reached through wizard teleportation should now have a static teleporter and they should all now link to the entire network.{Yes, the Greater Faydark spires now have a wizard portal in the middle. Bet you don’t even know where the spires are!} This affects the following zones: Greater Faydark, Moors of Ykesha, Kylong Plains, Tenebrous Tangle, Bonemire, Barren Sky

All call spells have had their cast times reduced to 10 seconds. {That includes all City call spells, Call of Ro, and Call to Guild Hall}

Guild hall bell amenities have been changed: Since all bells are the same now we have given each one a different look. The sinking sands carpet now acts like a bell but will retain the carpet look for those who like it.

One Bell to Rule Them All

The short version is as follows:

All Bells Are One Bell

All Druid Rings Lead To All Other Druid Rings

All Spires Are One

Oh, and you can putz about internally in some zones too.

You will no longer have time to take a shower, get coffee, and do your makeup while waiting for Call to Home to cast.

The good: the travel system was highly confusing for new players and did need to be rethought and reworked somewhat. This helps. Somewhat.

The less good: let’s call this what it is. It’s not a revamp, it’s a consolidation. More a spring-cleaning than a Flip My Travel System.

The really unwieldy: the travel map. It’s FREAKING HUGE!! and I’m playing at 1920×1200 on a 28″ monitor. On anything smaller and the map’ll probably bop you in the eye when it pops up. Here’s what the world-bell map looks like, with destinations:

In some cases, like the World Bells, travel has definitely been simplified. Now, if I want to get to the Enchanted Lands from Qeynos I no longer have to go to Antonica, then the Thundering Steppes, then Nektulos Forest, and finally to the Enchanted Lands. I understand the lore and RP reasons for that (travel by boat, boat routes), but puh-lease. I love RP, and I enjoy lore, but when they get in the damn way they should be reworked until they don’t. It’s that simple. If you want to make me travel for ages to get somewhere, do it on a tabletop campaign I’ll be sure to pass on.

(We’ll deal with meaningful travel some other day. I’m sure it’s been at least a year since I last ranted about “meaningful” travel where “meaningful” means “I just meaningfully wasted the 45 precious minutes you have to play. Now you have to make dinner/put the kids to bed/do the laundry/prep for work tomorrow. Isn’t it lovely that your play session was so full of meaningful travel? Have a nice day!”)

I’ve also heard a bunch of people say “Oh please, the newbs who can’t figure out what bell to hit in the guild hall don’t deserve any help, they’re too dumb!” So here’s a newsflash. Not everyone (gasp, I know!) is in a guild. Not everyone is in a large guild that has access to all the travel amenities. Not everyone who is in a guild even has a freaking clue how to get to the guild hall or that such amenities are available, depending on how helpful the guildies are. (Not any guilds I’m in, I hasten to add. But I did have to point someone else in the right direction after they joined Very Large Guild 0019 on Server X. They weren’t given any directions whatsoever regarding how to reach the hall, how to obtain their recall spell, and what the travel options are.) Not everyone comes into a game osmotically knowing what to do, so simpler is generally, you know, better.

This is an MMO rule, or should be. Just because you can make it complex doesn’t mean you should. Corollary: Just because it’s simple doesn’t mean it’s stupid or bad.

So anyway, this is a step in the right direction. I did wonder how they were going to tie together the three entirely different travel systems that exist, and the short answer is: they didn’t. Savvy travellers will still have a little advantage over less savvy ones, not counting the people with freaking huge guild halls who can just click on the amenity they need. The bells/spires/rings don’t all land in the same places, so sometimes it can be more useful to hit the Commonlands druid ring (in the western part of the zone) than its travel bell, which is way the hell over on the eastern side.

There have been complaints that this isn’t far-reaching enough, but for the time being it’s enough for me. I think it’s probably enough in general. I kind of like the different systems — they just need to be made more obvious to new players and more available for use, which I think is the case now.

So far the only real downside of this, aside from the huge-ass world map that pops up, is the fact that intra-zone travel has been made really awkward. Before, you’d click on the NPC and pick from a list of 2 or 3 options. Click-click-done. Now when you click the NPC the Huge-Ass (TM) zone map shows up and you have to hover the mouse frantically while trying to figure out where your destination is, then click (double click the destination or click-and-click-ok). It’s silly. NPC dialog options were WAY simpler and considering how many people have commented on this in the test forum, I suspect it may not stay as it is. If it does, I guess we’ll just have to suck it up and get used to it.

Remember — this is NOT ON LIVE yet. Just sayin’.

(It’s expected to be in the Game Update (err… 55?) coming out sometime around the end of the month. I have no seekrit sauce info on that.)

EDIT May 4th — rawr, got a mention on the EQ2 Town Crier! (Well okay just a link, but I’m not proud!) Welcome new readers, whoever you are!

I fired up the Test server this week and took some pix of the houses available in New Halas. These are from the 4-room, 3g/week rent place, but the deco is of course similar in all of them.

Click on a pic to see it at 1920×1200

Bay window of main room as seen from entranceEntrancewayBuilt-in shelving in side room, main floorCupboard for the people under the stairs. Or brooms. Or halflings.Upstairs room (larger houses have 2 of these and the fireplaces connect)View downstairs from the upper gallery

As far as I’m concerned these rock seven shades of win and I shall be moving my good chars there most skosh. I only wish my evil chars could live there too; even evil people like relaxing surroundings, built-in storage, and fireplaces!

Listos-version, as those of us who are too freaking old to say TL;DR without feeling unbelievably rude would say: mounts are saved, with the options so many people asked for. It’ll be CLIENT based which means you can set how you want to see mounts and Bob can set how he wants to see mounts. Three settings: off during combat (default), always off, always on. Ta-da! Yay devs! Yay community! Pie for all!

On the other hand, I was on the test server just now and they’re bringing it down in about 5 minutes. Surely they can’t be reversing the change that quickly? Actually, given the myriad bugs currently being reported for the New Halas content (nothing huuuuge that I saw, just your usual run of the mill “WTF is going on with my quest?!” buggage), it’s possible that’s just some other bugfix.

I’ve got a post coming up tomorrow with some New Halas housing screenies I took, but two posts a day is about my limit. Wouldn’t want Syp to start feeling underproductive.